Create nouns from the given verbs using suffix –ment:

to treat – лікувати → treatment – лікування

to develop – розвивати

to supply – постачання

to impair – пошкоджувати

to contain – містити

Put questions to the text.

COENZYME Q₁₀

Coenzyme Q₁₀ is a vitaminlike substance whose actions in the body resemble those of vitamin E. It may be an even more powerful antioxidant. It is also called ubiquinone. There are ten common substances designated coenzyme Qs, but coenzyme Q₁₀ is the only one found in human tissue. This substance plays a critical role in the production of energy in every cell of the body. It aids circulation, stimulates the immune system, increases tissue oxygenation, and has vital anti-aging effects. Deficiencies of coenzyme Q₁₀ have been linked to periodontal disease (пародонтоз), diabetes, and muscular dystrophy.

Research has revealed that supplemental coenzyme Q₁₀ has the ability to counter histamine, and therefore is beneficial for people with allergies, asthma, or respiratory disease. It is used by many health care professionals to treat anomalies of mental function such as those associated with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. It is also beneficial in fighting obesity, candidiasis, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.

Coenzyme Q₁₀ appears to be a giant step forward in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. A six-year study conducted by scientists at the University of Texas found that people being treated for congestive heart failure who took coenzyme Q₁₀ in addition to conventional therapy had a 75-percent chance of survival after three years, compared with a 25-percent survival rate for those using conventional therapy alone. In a similar study by the University of Texas and the Center for Adult Diseases in Japan, coenzyme Q₁₀ was shown to be able to lower high blood pressure without medication or dietary changes.

In addition to its use in fighting cardiovascular disease, coenzyme Q₁₀ has been shown to be effective in reducing mortality in experimental animals afflicted with tumors and leukemia. Some doctors give their patients coenzyme Q₁₀ to reduce the side effects of cancer chemotherapy.

Coenzyme Q₁₀ is widely used in Japan. More than 12 million people in that country are reportedly taking it at the direction of their physicians for treatment of heart disease (it strengthens the heart muscle) and high blood pressure, and also to enhance the immune system. Research in Japan has shown that coenzyme Q₁₀ also protects the stomach lining and duodenum, and may help heal duodenal ulcers.

The amount of coenzyme Q₁₀ present in the body declines with age, so it should be supplemented in the diet, especially by people who are over the age of fifty. A sublingual form containing 50 milligrams of this vital nutrient, available from Food Science Laboratories, is an especially assimilable supplement.

Mackerel, salmon, and sardines contain the largest amounts of coenzyme Q₁₀. It is also found in beef, peanuts, and spinach.

 

Copy out the names of diseases from the text.

 

2. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the other name of coenzyme Q₁₀? 2. How does it function? 3. Why is coenzyme Q₁₀ needed for our body? 4. What research concerning coenzyme Q₁₀ was made in Japan? 5. What are the main sources of coenzyme Q₁₀?

 

Summarize the text.

HEALING AGENTS AND HOW THEY WORK

There are two main types of substance formed in healing plants during the course of their natural metabolic processes, and both have an important medical role: the healing agents them­selves, or the active substances, and the inactive, or ballast substances.

Most healing plants contain several pharmacologically active substances, one of which will be dominant, and it is this substance which influences the choice of plant by the phytotherapist. But the importance of the secondary healing agents should not be under­estimated (недооцінена), because without them the primary agent could have a totally dif­ferent effect: it is the natural combination of active and ballast sub­stances rather than the working of a single agent which puts the body back on the road to health.

The variety of healing substances in a plant should be known to the col­lector, as should be the equally important fact that they can be found in different quantities in different parts of the plant. Sometimes the most valuable part of the plant is its blossom, at other it may be leaves, roots, seeds, fruit, or even bark.

Another fact worth knowing is that the potency of healing plants varies with the seasons and that some are always far more powerful than others, and so should not be used in home medicine. However, most healing plants can be used safely at home, as long as you know the correct season for harvesting and the best way of preparing the medicine to guard against harmful effects. The correct method of storing plants ensures that they lose little of their potency and this is essential because some treatments take up to eight weeks to complete.

In order to know more about the use of plants in home medicine it is first necessary to get a basic grasp of some of the healing agents they contain.

Alkaloid drugs

These are mostly very potent sub­stances and taken in overdose they can have poisonous effects. This makes them unsuitable for use in teas and infusions, though they are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry. They include atropine, a poison found in deadly nightshade (красавка), morphine, from the opium poppy, or colchicine from the autumn crocus. Caffein and theo-bromide in coffee, black tea and cocoa are also alkaloids, and so these bever­ages should not be drunk in large quantities. However, alkaloids are also sometimes present in reduced quan­tities in plants not usually regarded as containing any poisonous substances. Their function here is to act as a catalyst to the healing process without being involved in it directly themselves.

Bitter drugs

There are a great number of healing plants that taste bitter, but the term 'bitter drugs' refers solely to those plants which contain a healing agent whose potency is due to its bitter qualities.

The secretion of the digestive juices in the stomach is controlled by bitters, and this is one area where they can be said to have a beneficial effect. Bitter drugs are therefore highly recom­mended in cases of loss of appetite and indigestion. They are equally good at strengthening the body when it has been weakened by ill health and can be of great help to convalescents or those suffering from anaemia or nervous ex­haustion. Even patients with chronic gastritis can be treated with infusions of lesser centaury and wormwood (полин), both of which are bitter drugs.

Essential oils as healing agents

Essential oils are constituents of plants which have a strong, but almost always pleasant smell. Although they evaporate easily they hardly ever dis­solve in water. There are hardly any plants which contain no essential oils at all, but those used in phytotherapy contain a particularly high concentra­tion of these fragrant oils. Two of the most prominent botanical families of plants to fall into this area are the labiates (губоцвітні) and umbelliferae.

Essential oils are composed of a variety of different substances, and up to fifty can be identified in a single type of oil. These substances can help to relieve light or severe irritation of the skin, they can act as expectorants in the treatment of coughs, they can be diuretics, relieve cramp and act as tonics to strengthen the stomach, intestines, gall bladder and liver. They are also used to treat infectious diseases and can help rid the body of bacteria and even viruses; although it must not be assumed that they will necessarily completely kill them.

Tannin as a healing agent

Tannin is a botanical agent which is capable of binding albumen in the skin and the mucous membrane to form an insoluble protective layer resistant to disease. Herein lies its healing power, because it can separate the bacteria which have settled on the skin and the mucous membrane from their source of nutrition. Tannin can be the primary healing agent in a plant (e.g.oak bark, blueberry etc.), it can act as a catalyst, and in some cases it can even have a harmful effect and irritate the stomach wall. A way round this is to prepare a cold infusion of the plant prescribed so that only a small proportion of the tannin is absorbed.

Drugs containing tannin are useful to gargle with if the patient is suffering from a sore throat, as a mouth wash against inflamed gums, in the form of a compress to heal open wounds, and especially as a treatment against diarrhoea. In hot water they can effec­tively be used to bathe haemorrhoids and general inflammations of the skin.